UAB Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center funded for another five years

UAB's National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center has received a five-year renewal grant.

UAB has received a $2.5 million, five-year renewal grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to continue the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, which has been housed in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UAB since 1984.

NSCISC supports and directs the collection, management and analysis of the world’s largest spinal-cord injury database. It is at the hub of a network of 14 federally sponsored and three subcontract-funded regional Model Spinal Cord Injury Systems located at major U.S. medical centers. Many of the findings have had a significant impact on the delivery and nature of medical rehabilitation services provided to SCI patients.

Smita Bhatia, M.D., M.P.H., director of UAB's new Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, explains how cancer treatments can lead to chronic health conditions in later life — and how "survivorship clinics" will help.

Naloxone kits have prevented more than 10,000 deaths from opioid overdose since local distribution programs began in 1996. Now, as deaths from opioid overdose reach an all-time high in the United States, a crowdfunded project from UAB researchers aims to put naloxone in the hands of those at highest risk.

About half of American hospitals have some form of arts programming, usually art or music therapy. Now a growing number of medical centers — UAB Hospital is the first in Alabama — are implementing the more comprehensive AIM model.